Planning tool for developing the staffing requirements of a service work force

ABSTRACT

A tool and method for developing the staffing requirements of a service work force which provides patient care. The tool is used to ascertain the number of persons required to give each component of care, such as nurses, practical nurses, and nurse&#39;&#39;s aides. The tool includes at least two indicators mounted for movement with respect to each other. One of the indicators has a selector scale calibrated in a spaced graduated series of indicia representing the total number of patients or other task unit services by the work force. At least three other scales are formed on the other of the indicators. Each of the other scales comprising a series of indicia represent fractions of man hours or fractions of personnel required for each in a cumulative total number of task unit services by the work force. Movement of one indicator relative to the other of the indicators displays information which indicates the total number of man hours required for each of at least three different categories of workers for the total number of task units requiring service. According to a further feature, one of the indicators includes a plurality of scales which may be selected by separating, inverting, or reversing pieces.

United States Patent 1191 Walker Jan. 7, 1975 PLANNING TOOL FORDEVELOPING THE [57] ABSTRACT STAFFING REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVICE A tooland method for developing the staffing require- WORK FORCE ments of aservice work force which provides patient [75] Inventor: Maurice J.Walker, Lincolnshire, lll. care The.tool ls l to ascertam the number ofsons required to give each component of care, such as Asslgneel WalkerAssociates, nurses, practical nurses, and nurses aides. The toolNol'thbl'ook, includes at least two indicators mounted for movement withrespect to each other. One of the indicators [22] Flled' Sept' 1973 hasa selector scale calibrated in a spaced graduated [21] Appl. No.2 394,56 series of indicia representing the total number of patients or othertask unit services by the work force. At 52 US. Cl. 235/85 R, 235/89 R lg three E f k f fl of [51] Int. Cl G06c 3/00 In ac 0 t e er Sea escompnsmg a seines [58] Field of Search 235/85 R, 89 R, 70 A; g f hours RR 37, E, 75 0 peISOnne l'tiquile 9r 680 In a CUmLl atlve tota 24 Anumber of task umt serv1ce s by the work force. Movement of one md1catorrelative to the other of the indi- [561 3112129212231211 5123,1380721181222:12:21 UNITED STATES PATENTS three different categories of workersfor the total Blcknell R number of task units requiring ervice Accordingto a gf 2 further feature, one of the indicators includes a pluralmcen2,553,915 5/1951 Grant et al..... 235/85 R Scales y be Selected bySeparatmg 3,747,847 7/1973 Cohen 235/85 R reversmg PrimaryExaminer-Stephen J. Tomsky 4tt0rney, Agent, or FirmAlter, Weiss,Whitesel & Laff 5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures /g PATIENT CARE STATIONSHIFT NUMBER OF PAT] ENTS CAT E 550W PLANNINIGEZTIOOQL FORDEVELOPING THESTAFFING REQUIREMENTS or A SERVICE;

woRK FORCE I BACKGROUND OF'THE INVENTION A example o aworkforce likelyto use the inventivetobliand method' is'found in a modern hospital. The-patients are constantlychanging, and their care needs change also. Forexample, onv any given hospital floor,

, the patients one dayforfshift may require certain bal- -f anceofskilllevels inthe nursing staff which is totally different than the; balance'of skill levels required by different patients on the samefloor'ona-,different day or" l-Ieretofore the scheduling of a balanced. workforce has tended to depend uponithejudgment' of someone I having manyyears of experience. This-means that high salaried peoplemustdiverttheir attention to adminisi j trative tasks, that theiraccumulatedexperience is lost when they depart, that too much depends upon their.

" intuitive suppositions, and that the' res ultant health care is as.good as and no better than such intuition; v Moreover, it is noteven-clear that the person scheduling thework force is using the propercriteria forsej lecting the stafffor any given day. The patient careproi igramincludes the four interrelated activities of patientclassification, skill level determination, activity analysis. orscheduling-and staffing. Traditionally, the nursebelieves thatpatientcaremeans the treatment given patients to render aid or' assistance.However, a true pa ;v

. tors, each institution requires a unique amount of time to performeach ofits activities. Thus, the third phase of the patient care programbegins with an analysis of all institutional activities, to improve itsmethods and systems. Systematic analysis of work flow, procedures,

- and work planning are combined with patient care standard data todetermineappropriate amounts of time, and therefore staff, for eachlevel of patient care.

Although this standard data'is predetermined from studies in health carefacilities combined with time I measurement methods, it is carefullymodified to fit existing conditions.

After these process steps have been completed, the

administration consults the inventive tool, selects tient-carefunctions.

tient care program should-mean the amount of care required torender the'best possible service to each patient, Thus, the, basic schedulingshould be built around the anticipated timerequiredby. each patient andby the skill level of each person f urni 'shing health care or serviceto each patient. Y 1

- from a highly skilled nurse. The first step in such process comprisesa classification of patientsac'cording to the different amounts of eachgcatego'ry of'care that each patient requires. Thepatient careprogram-also requires the establishment of well-definedcategories ofpatient-related activities, consistent with the hospitals or nursinghomes'policies-and desires. Usually there-1 are three to five categoriesof care, ranging'from ambulatory to intensive. The critical point in theselection of categories is not the degree of. illness, but the amount ofcare required.

The second step in the inventive process is a .workers skill, leveldetermination since a registered nurse is not required to perform alltasks for all patientsfPreferably, the nursing personnel andadministrative staff members determine the lowest skill level(registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, nurse 5 aide, or orderly)required to perform each activity of patient care. Perhaps as many astwo to 300 different tasks are categorized, considering both staterequirements and the. in-

comprises at least two indicators mounted for move- .mentwith respect toeach other. One of the indicators "has a's elector scale calibratedtoindicate the total number of patients or. other task units services bythe work force. At least threeotherscales are provided on the other ofsaid indicatorsfor representing the fractions of man hours'required fora, cumulative total number of j I of the indicatorsfor displayinginformation correlated to a position onthe selector scale. Theinformation so displayed. oneach of the other scales indicates the totalnumber of man hours required for each of at least three different'categories of workers for the total number of task units requiringservice. I v DESCRIPTIQNOF THE DRAWINGS FIG. l-is'a plan view showingthe indicator 'tool in a zero position! I -FIG. 2 is a similar viewshowing the inventive slide chart indicator tool in anoperatedcondition; and FIG. 3 is a plan view (partiallybroken away' toshow both sides) of a single slide graph unit usedin FIGS. I and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT e The slide chart indicatortool' means comprises at v lea st two' 'indicators 20, 21 which aremounted for Imovement with respect to'each other. As here shown,

stitutions policies. This determination is desirable to indicator 20 isan outer wrapper or jacket, and indicator.2l is an internal slidegraph,including three slide units of the type seen in FIG. 3. The indicator 20has a-plurality of windows 22, 23, 24, cut or otherwise formed in anouter wrapper or envelope-The other in-v dicator 21 is a 'slidingmemberhaving a plurality of in-v dependent slide graph units, .each with aplurality of scales longitudinally printedthereon. The variouswindows,"scales, indicators, and information are interrelated so that,as theisliding member 21 is positioned,

*parallel, discrete items of information are displayed at .each of threewindows 22,23, 24 in member 20.

inventive slide chart .cia representing a total number of patients orother task pointer 27 iprinted on the sliding member 21. As member 21is'pulled, the arrow points toward the number of patients or task unitsin a given area of a hospital or other center. Adjacent the window 26 isthe descriptive notation number of patients" anda category notation. Thecategory may be anything convenient to the hospital or health carecenterQ For example, the category could be childrens ward, maternityward, cardiac ward, intensive, or the like.

.The inner .slide graph 21 is preferably assembled from a number ofdiscrete slide graph units, one of which is shown in FIG. 3. Moreparticularly, each slide graph unit 30 comprises an elongated boardhaving a length L correspondingto the length L of the outer 'wrapper 20,and a width W corresponding to one-third of the distance D defined bytwo side guides, preferably held in place within the wrapper by means ofany suitable number of rivets 32. One of the side guides is crosshatched at 31, for easy identification. Each slide graph unit(preferably'plastic or heavy cardboard) occupies sufficient physicalspace within the wrapper so that the three slide graph units slide andfunction as a single unit.

As seen in FIG. 3, each slide graph unit has two scales on each side,with one scale beginning oneach end of the unit. Thus, for example, byrotating FIG. 3 through 90 in a counterclockwise direction, scale 0.00]is seen extending from 0.001 upwardly to correspond to the left-handscale in FIGS. 1 and 2. If this slide graph unit ,30 is flipped overwhile in this counterclockwise position, the 0.003 scale is seen tobegin at 0.003, as indicated by a broken away section 33 of the outerwrapper and by the scale 34, which has been lettered beside the slidegraph unit. If FIG..3 is next returned to normal (as seen with thedrawing in its upright position) and then rotated by 90 in a clockwisedirection, a 0.002 scale is seen as beginning with the number 0.002. Ifthe slide also beprovided, such asdoctors, orderlies, and the like.

Initially, time, motion,'patient care needs, mix of pa tients, hospitalpolicy, etc. are studied to determine how much time each class of workermust devote to each category of patient. Frornthese studies standardsare generated on a per patient basis in a suitable time scale (such asthe closest tenths, hundredths, or thousandths of an hour, for example).From these stan-,

'dards, achart of tables is prepared in the form of col- For convenienceof expression, the figures in the first graph unit 30 is flipped overwhile in this clockwise position, the 0.004 scale is seen to begin at0.004 as indicated by'a broken-away'section 35, and by the scale 36which has been lettered besidethe slide graph unit.

The pointer at 38 refersto the position of the 0.001 scale if the slidegraphunit 30 is used in the center position 39 of the sliding unit 21.Likewise, the pointers 39, 40 and 41 refer to the 0.002, 0.003 and 0.004scales, respectively, if they are in the center position 39. All of theslide graph units areslid out and simultaneously aligned to match theposition of the center unit, as indicated on scale 25' by'a pointer,such as 27. Upon reflection, it should be apparent that the three slidegraph units shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 provide an optional selection of anythree of twelve different scales and that any selected scale may appearbefore any of the windows 22-24. A still greater selection of scalesmaybe-provided by the use of additional slide graph units. The innerslide graph 21 thus includes columns of figures providing at least threescales, here indicating classes of workers such as registered nurses(RN), licensed practical nurses (LPN), and'nurses aides (NA). However,any other or additional classes of workers may row (seen in windows22-24, FIG. 1) may be described as a basic time module. The number ineach succeeding row in the columns is the basic time module increased byone multiple. Thus, for example, the column in window 24, having thebasic time module 0.008 is the number group or series 0.008, 0.0l6,0.024 etc. The'center column having the basic time module 0.03 is thenumber group 0.03, 0.06, 0.09 etc. Hence, it should be apparent, if theindicator 27 is raised to, say four patients, the number then displayedin window 22 is four times the basic time module number that would bethen displayed if the indicator 27 points to I. Likewise, similardisplays appear at each of the other windows. g

From the time studies, there is a basic time module for each category ofservice and for each class of worker giving such service to each taskunit (a single patient being one task unit in this case). For example,FIG. 1 has been drawn to show that each patient requires one-thousandthof a registered nurse s time each hour;'therefore, the basic time moduleis 0.00l for registered nurses (RN). Each patient requiresthree-onehund'redth of a licensed practical nurses hour and eightone-thousandths of a nurses aides hours. Thus, the basic time modulesfor these workers are 0.03 and 0.008, respectively. From FIG. 2, it isseen that the hospital personnel are assigned so that nine patients inthis particular category are served by 0.009 registered nurses, 0.27licensed practical nurses, and 0.072 nurses aides. If the shifts are 8hours, these figures are multiplied by 8 so that during oneshift, 0072hours of a registered nurses time, 2.16 hours of a practical nursestime, and '0.576"hours of a nurses aides time are required.

Of course, other patients assigned to the same nurse s station will haveother patient care requirements. Thus, for example, one station mighthave say, four different categories'and therefore four differentplanning tools, each being similar to that shown in FIGS. 1, 2, exceptthat different basic time modules are used to make the workforceassignments. The man hours might then be such that by adding the figuresappearing in windows 22, 23, 24 of four different planningtools, it isfound that two nurses, three licensed practical nurses, and three nursesaides are required.

Scheduling staff requirements vary from shift to shift and unit to unit,on a day-by-day basis dependent upon the number and classification ofpatients or task units.

Therefore, at the end of each shift,all patients or task units areclassified, in accordance with a patient classification chart, for thenext shift. During the change of shift, the classification is reviewedand adjusted, as necessary. Accordingly, adjustments to the unit staffare made and duties are assigned. The staff ng data is reviewed by thefloor supervisor or nursing director and collected into a report that ispresented weekly to the hospital administration who compares the actualstaff with the theoretical staff, that is, the staff required to performthe degree of patient care desired by the institution.

Thus, the inventive patient care or other staff scheduling program is avery successful means of reducing the cost of giving services whileimproving the care actually given to patients.

The foregoing has described the task units in terms of hospitalpatients, the basic time module in terms of man hours, and the class ofworkers in terms of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, andnurses aides. However, the invention is not necessarily limited to theseparticular criteria. instead, similar work forces may be developed forother assignments, as well. Therefore, the appended claims are to beconstrued to include all equivalents falling within the true scope andspirit of the invention.

1 claim:

1. A tool for developing and staffing a service work force with therequired amount of personnel comprismg:

a frame having at least two surfaces;

a series of information display windows, laterally aligned in saidframe;

index window means longitudinally disposed in said frame and having aselector scale adjacent thereto calibrated into a graduated series ofindicia repre senting the total number of task units serviced by saidwork force;

a plurality of separate slide means equal to the number of said displaywindows;

said slide means adapted to be slidably disposed in said frame;

each of said slide means comprising a plurality of series of indiciarepresenting scales in terms of fractions of man hours required for agiven class of worker to serve in a total number of task units servicedby said work force, the relative lengths of each series of indicia beingcorrelated relative to each other;

each of said slide means additionally comprising an identifyingproportion factor representing the basic time module of work which aworker must devote to each category of work, whereby the position ofeach slide in said frame is determined from time studies directed atascertaining the basic unit of time required to perform a pre-selectedtask;

said slides having a physical relationship to said index window meanswhereby any one of said plurality of series of indicia may be displayedin said window means responsive to interchanging, reversing, andinverting the positions of said slides in accordance with said properidentifying proportion factor;

selector means on each of said slides for positioning each said sliderelative to said frame by selecting the total number of task units onsaid selector scale regardless of the interchanged, reversed, orinverted position of said slide;

whereby alignment of said slides relative to each other indicates insaid display windows the total number of man hours required for each ofthe different categories of work required.

2. The tool of claim 1 wherein each task unit comprises a health carepatient of a particular category and each graduation on said selectorscale indicates a eumulative total number of patients served by saidwork force.

3. The tool of claim 2 wherein each of the other scales is a numbergroup beginning with said basic time module, and a graduation in thescale comprises a multiple of said basic time module, said relativescale lengths being such that the cumulative total number corresponds tothe multiple of the number displayed.

4. The tool of claim 3 wherein said other scales contain informationrelating to the numbers of man hours per task unit required forregistered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurses aids,respectively.

5. The tool of claim 3 wherein said selector scale is carried by anouter wrapper and the other separate slides interchangeably fit side byside within said outer wrapper to carry a slide graph inside said outerwrapper, and windows in said outer wrapper for displaying informationfrom the scales on said side graph.

1. A tool for developing and staffing a service work force with therequired amount of personnel comprising: a frame having at least twosurfaces; a series of information display windows, laterally aligned insaid frame; index window means longitudinally disposed in said frame andhaving a selector scale adjacent thereto calibrated into a graduatedseries of indicia representing the total number of task units servicedby said work force; a plurality of separate slide means equal to thenumber of said display windows; said slide means adapted to be slidablydisposed in said frame; each of said slide means comprising a pluralityof series of indicia representing scales in terms of fractions of manhours required for a given class of worker to serve in a total number oftask units serviced by said work force, the relative lengths of eachseries of indicia being correlated relative to each other; each of saidslide means additionally comprising an identifying proportion factorrepresenting the basic time module of work which a worker must devote toeach category of work, whereby the position of each slide in said frameis determined from time studies directed at ascertaining the basic unitof time required to perform a pre-selected task; said slides having aphysical relationship to said index window means whereby any one of saidplurality of series of indicia may be displayed in said window meansresponsive to interchanging, reversing, and inverting the positions ofsaid slides in accordance with said proper identifying proportionfactor; selector means on each of said slides for positioning each saidslide relative to said frame by selecting the total number of task unitson said selector scale regardless of the interchanged, reversed, orinverted position of said slide; whereby alignment of said slidesrelative to each other indicates in said display windows the totalnumber of man hours required for each of the different categories ofwork required.
 2. The tool of claim 1 wherein each task unit comprises ahealth care patient of a particular category and each graduation on saidselector scale indicates a cumulative total number of patients served bysaid work force.
 3. The tool of claim 2 wherein each of the other scalesis a number group beginning with said basic time module, and agraduation in the scale comprises a multiple of said basic time module,said relative scale lengths being such that the cumulative total numbercorresponds to the multiple of the number displayed.
 4. The tool ofclaim 3 wherein said other scales contain information relating to thenumbers of man hours per task unit required for registered nurses,licensed practical nurses, and nurse''s aids, respectively.
 5. The toolof claim 3 wherein said selector scale is carried by an outer wrapperand the other separate slides interchangeably fit side by side withinsaid outer wrapper to carry a slide graph inside said outer wrapper, andwindows in said outer wrapper for displaying information from the scaleson said side graph.